Houston Head Coach Tom Penders
Opening Statement
"You see these types of things every night in college or pro basketball. UCF played us as well as any team that we have played against in the first half this season. We just kept scratching and clawing. We finally got some shots to start falling for us in the second half, and we stopped them at critical times on defense. They got at least seven buckets from the same back door play in the first half, and I don't know if they got one bucket on us in the second half."

On What He Told the Team at Halftime
"I told the team if we can be within 10 points with six minutes left we were going to win it. I know what happened last week is in your mind. We went out and did what Rice did to us."

On Marcus Malone:
"I couldn't be happier for Marcus. It was huge for him because he had been struggling offensively for some reason. He has been playing great defense but hasn't been looking for his shot. He stepped into every one of those last three shots the same way and held his follow through. I am thrilled about how Marcus responded because we need him or Robert Lee to step up."

Houston Guard Marcus Malone
On Hitting the Game-Winning Three-Pointer
"Coach Penders threatened me before I got back into the game. He said if I didn't make those shots or step up, I wasn't going to be playing the rest of the season. The pressure was on and the coaches believed in me. It was just a matter of me knocking down shots. My teammates did a great job of finding me so all I had to do was just knock down shots."

On the Team's First Half Struggles
"We tend to start slow at home for some reason. I don't know if it's because of the crowd, but we have to do a better job of starting the game because in the long run it's going to come back and bite us."

Houston Guard Robert McKiver
Opening Statement
"We might have lost our focus at Rice, but we wanted to show that we're going to fight even when were down 20. We wanted to win and show everyone that we still have fight in us. We were out of sync in the first half and things weren't going our way. That happens in basketball. We bounced back and got the win. That's all that matters in my mind."

On the Play of Marcus Malone
"Marcus' play tonight showed that we're a team. He hasn't really been shooting well or getting a lot of shots. He took advantage of the opportunity he had tonight. I got it to him when he was open and he hit big shots that allowed us to win the game."